First song: Liberate the Penguins

 The last post was kind of a downer, and I have nobody but myself to blame for that. I just need to be more patient on the road and not go too fast when I’m putting a keyboard on a stand. 

Things have kind of turned for the better since then. While Kyler did end up testing positive this morning when we tested him, good news is I am off the next 2 days, and if he is halfway into it like we think he might be, he could just end up missing this week from school and be able to go back next Monday, and it should be something all of the adults in his life (myself, Karen, and Karen’s mom) should be able to cover if he needs a sitter on Thursday and Friday. 

I have also been able to make a (lyric) music video to what I hope will be one of the first of many songs I can torture my loyal readers with. Before I post the video, a little background. 

I was homeschooled for a good amount of my childhood. 1st grade-half of 2nd grade, half of 5th grade-end of 10th grade. I went to a private Christian school from 2nd-5th, and most of the social interaction I got was at church. Not a good deal for someone being thrown to the wolves at public school in 11th grade. I basically didn’t say a word to anyone for the first few weeks and became friends with anyone who pitied me.

That included some crazy people. Jason Sitta, his brother Josh, Bradley Agee, his brother Branden, and another Josh (Richardson), and his brother Jordan. I hung out with those guys the majority of 11th and 12th grade. They were your basic gothic kind of guys who enjoyed video games and wrestling. That love of video games led them to the game Metal Gear Solid, which had some group in the game called the Sons of Liberty. Josh R took it a step further and made a group called the Grandsons of Liberty. Josh R, and the rest of the gang took to the halls of school to add members to the group. Main goals of the group? Liberate penguins, hats, and words that end with the letter ‘a’.  Naturally, I was a perfect fit for the club. Each member got a code name (I was brown sugar), and had to recruit other members. I have always enjoyed penguins, so I had no problem being in the club and getting people to join. 

In 2001, I went to college at the University of Mobile in Mobile, Alabama, and recruited a half a dozen or so people. One of them was a guy named JT. He would become my roommate during my 2nd semester there. I moved back to Florida in 2002, and in 2005 before Christmas, decided to hang out in Mobile for a few days and see some old friends, 1 being JT. While hanging out with him, we were messing around on his piano, and started writing music to a song about penguins. I went back home to Florida and finished the lyrics, and within 6 months, I had moved back up to Alabama to stay with JT and his family and try to get a band going. We had a Weird Al-type of band called ‘The Younger Griffin’, and a serious project called ‘Resiliency from Obscurity’. JT ended up getting a traveling job like a year later, but before that, we recorded piano, synth, and all of the vocals to the song. I moved back to Florida in 2009, and added the bass and drums to the song, and it has been the lead Younger Griffin song since then. Both bands we made are still ‘active’ today, although neither I or JT have much time to devote to the projects. JT became my brother in law in 2013, so I see him a few times a year, and we keep telling ourselves that we are going to get together and record one weekend. I have been doing some recording during the past 6 months, but really need JTs expertise in singing and writing lyrics and recording for that matter. I do have confidence that if nothing else, I might get some of my stuff recorded, and just use the 'Resiliency' brand to get it out there this year. 

So short story long, that is how we ended up with this song about liberating penguins. For the Younger Griffin, JT refers to himself as Jophis, and I am Captain Scratch. Keeps our loved ones from being embarassed and stuff. Here is a simple video with the lyrics, chord progressions, and even a watermark from the site that I downloaded the program to make the video with. If this thing works well enough, I'll keep making videos like this to put my songs up on my blog with. Please leave comments (or hate remarks), and I will try to improve things going forward.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy